The Sweet Slow Days of Autumn

I used to be overly partial to the sweet smelling days of spring.....the smells of tiny new blades of grass emerging under the carpet of brown, dormant, dead ground cover. The cool spring breezes, the colors that start to abound and come alive after a season of long dry nothingness. But as I grow older, and I suppose a little more sentimental with age and the passing of time, I have come to discover that each year as fall approaches I am once again enchanted with this amazing change in life. The smells of spicy apples cooked in all sorts of autumn concoctions, nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, fires burning within neighboring fireplaces, bright yellow falling leaves, the sounds of them crunching underfoot, the trampoline blanketed in the oranges, browns and yellows of leaves that have been collected by many small hands, piled into mountains of jumping fun and bliss. The sight of tons of children in a downpour of fall colors as they jump and laugh, their choruses happily ringing through the open windows. Pieces of leaves and tiny brown twigs fall haphazardly in their hair like angelic autumn halos, seeming to complete the scene that encompasses everything about this season. I love this time of year. I love the crisp days after the long hot dry summers. I love what it is to wake up in the early morning and fix a steaming cup of coffee and listen to our now crowing rooster.....the one and only rooster still remaining from the 4 we started with. I love what it is to see the children emerge from their room one by one in their warm, fuzzy pajamas, sleepy squinted eyes and sleepy little grins as they come out to greet a new day and be held for a few minutes before the dump of energy and adrenaline set in over the joy of a new day dawning. Reminders of the season sit all around me as they unintentionally and very simply decorate our counter tops, dressers and even walls. I suddenly see the world through the eyes of my children, the eyes that stand in constant seasonal wonder at the creations of their Creator. Little glass jars that stand filled with colorful chicken feathers, the beautiful black and white shed feathers of a bird on its way south, crispy yellow, orange and brown leaves, brown acorns, rough and jagged rocks that stand in contrast against the smooth and shiny ones by their side, as they somehow in some way mesmerized children and filled them with enough wonder to be found worthy of note. Even an old pocket watch top that must be no less than 80 years old that was unearthed in their digging expeditions as they search for beauty and wonder in every crack and crevice of the earth on these beautiful days. And once again I realize how good life is. I look out and see children scaling gates and fences running freely, a red bucket hung from a high tree branch hanging in stark contrast to the colorful leaves that surround it, cats cradled in the laps of loving little caregivers perched on our front porch, swings gliding freely high within the air as older ones push younger ones......despite the fact that more than a few have come in with whelps, bruises and bumps from slamming into the towering, unmoving object from which the swings dangle!

And on that note........this week has been full of bumps and bruises. It started with Garrett getting in the way of the flying rock expertly pitched by Grant. He now has a bruised black and purple eye. Only one day later Garrison and Grant were wrestling in the bed while they were supposed to be napping and hit heads. Grant has a perfectly round purple knot on his forehead. For Garrison the force was enough to reinjure the incompletely healed spot on his head. It once again started gushing blood...this time worse than any of the times before. After 30 minutes of continuous bleeding and no signs of stopping, soaking through 2 layered paper towels and not even nearing a stopping point even with the aid of an ice pack we were forced to make a trip to the station...which then ended in a trip to the ER. Brad drove the medic and we followed him up there. He went in with Garrison while I waited outside and talked with the guy he was riding with, enabling me to see the van but still be near in the event they caught a call. Once again Garrison's head was nitrated to see yet again if this one might take. Though it contained quite a bit more pain for sweet Garrison he still refrained from shedding even one tear and sat bravely up there enduring this for a 2nd time. This time around he did fess up after the fact, once safely back in the van, that it "hurt his head really bad when the Dr burned it with fire"........... not exactly fire but a silver nitrate stick. I'm sure to him it was feeling like an open flame. Having awakened Aubrey, Garrett and Gavin to go they had been hurriedly thrown into the van so that we could make the 30 mile trip into town as his head continued to bleed. So, once the ER trip was over we loaded back up and headed right back home. As we loaded and Brad loved everybody bye I went to shut the van door not realizing Aubrey's head was still sticking out of the corner of it. So, in the midst of our bumps and bruises her head got shut in the door not once but twice...since I had no clue what the obstruction happened to be and ingeniously tried to slam it again. So, at this point now Garrison has a HUGE bandage on his head from his ER trip, Garrett has a black eye, Grant is sporting a round purple knot on his forehead and Aubrey now has a black and purple bruise on each temple of her head. Ugh! Then somehow today just as Grant's knot is disappearing and Garrett's eye is a nice shade of yellow/green Evye and Aubrey managed to collide while swinging. Aubrey stood in front of the swing despite the millions of times they have been told not to stand in front of a moving swing. In the force of the collision Evye hit her hard enough to reinjure her temple and now it is REALLY black and blue. The force sent Evye flying sideways straight into the tree and gave her a purple swollen eye and a scratched up, scraped up arm. My gosh, people. I didn't know a week like this was really possible.......in which almost every kid looks as though they have survived a tornado. So...here we are sporting all sorts of bright colors around here.

In the midst of all of this taking place Gavin had his 1st MAJOR ear infection. Brad and I both assumed it was the fact he was cutting 4 molars at once so chalked the low grade fever up to teeth since there was no congestion, runny nose or anything else that even remotely spoke of being sick. After 4 days of low grade fever he began to puke and was obviously growing sicker by the day. By the 4th day into it he refused to eat, was dropping weight rapidly and now had stomach issues in which both diarrhea and puking were involved everytime he did attempt to eat....which was rare. We pulled the ear scope out, now realizing this was much more than a few teeth coming through. He had a raging ear infection in his right ear and his left ear housed some swelling and pinkyness to it. We had never caught an ear infection this late in the game since we always start all of the preventative stuff very early on as soon as any complaints come. I didn't hold out much hope of curing this on our own with stuff we have done in the past since he was so sick by this point. So, Brad called and made an appt for him to be seen the very next day. By this time he just laid in his highchair pathetically and stared at everybody with sunken, red rimmed eyes. He suddenly looked sick. He wouldn't walk and barely uttered any noise, just wanting to be held close for hours on end or left alone to sleep. I immediately started the Colloidal Silver and instead of just spraying it into his ears began dropping it in with a dropper and filling it his little ear canal up. It only took a few hours of sleep to notice a difference. When I went in to check on him before going to bed he was fever free for the 1st time since this had all started and without the aid of fever reducers. AND he was desperately wanting a bottle. He took it and actually held it down. When he awoke the next morning with an insatiable appetite I began mixing generous amounts of coconut oil in with a banana and some ground up oatmeal. He remained fever free on his own. Again, a small step of success in the now 5 day battle. It only took the night after that 1st round of Colloidal Silver for the turning point to hit and for him to fall back into his old rowdy and loud self. By the end of the next morning and 2 more rounds of Colloidal Silver in his ears he was running, hollering and interacting with everybody, chasing Garrett around and playing cars with his buddy. We canceled the appt and he is back to pretty much perfect, except for sleeping the last part of this off. He's eaten his amount in weight I am quite sure, making up for everything he hasn't eaten over the last week. The sunken, red rimmed eyes are gone and his gaunt little body is filling back out rapidly. I still stand amazed. Through a bunch of continual prayer on everybody's part and a little Colloidal Silver and coconut oil we actually watched a raging ear infection be cured without the use of antibiotics or any trips to the Dr. To have him go from not doing anything for 4 days to running around and playing happily with everybody is amazing to me. Although, I have to fess up that I kinda OD'd him on the coconut oil.....and beware.....when taken in high doses that one's body is not used to it can cause stomach upset. So.....as he began to get over all of this and I continued on with the high doses of coconut oil he managed to puke it all back up after having gone a full 24 hrs without puking at all. I think it's safe to say he's got plenty in his system now and it is definitely doing the job without needing anymore. In the midst of it all I just continued to pray for complete healing and that the Lord would stop this before it went around to everybody....both ear infection and potential stomach bug, if that's what it proved to be. Sick babies around due date time make it a bit hard to rest easy. But alas...no one else has gotten any of what he has had. Aubrey complained of double ear aches but they were easily fixed with a few rounds of the Colloidal Silver.......since we can catch her's way before they ever turn into anything major.

And so we spend our days living out life in this incredible autumn season.......bumps, bruises, fevers and all.....waiting for sweet Ivye's arrival, some days a little more patiently than others. I am quite content with her in there right now. It makes it much easier to take care of a sick puking baby when there are no sleepless nights due to a newborn on top of it all. So it is that I am happily content still being very largely pregnant..........though there are the days that come when I get a little ready to hurry things up a bit and just want the whole labor and delivery to be over with. But somehow I am still managing to wait pretty quietly. Now it's just the unknown of "when". I'd dearly love for it to be any night. Just the surprise of waking up to labor and knowing today is the day. The joy of being with Brad when it happens and not having to call him to FW and wait for him to arrive. But on the other side of it is that I am not severely uncomfortable and could easily carry this baby another 2 weeks and still be fine.

So we wait........as the children turn back into their normal skin shades and sick babies feel better and better with each passing day........as I embrace the season of smells and color. As I wake up in the early morning to drink my cup of pumpkin or peppermint coffee, eating pumpkin pancakes, seeking to hold onto everything that is dear and close to my heart as we make our way through another season of wonderment.

On a funny little side note..........we bought a little oil plug in air freshener for the children's room. It contained the scent of apple spice, which is pretty much just like apple pie. Each morning as the children awake and I kiss their little heads their tussled hair and pajamas smell amazingly like autumn apple pie. Makes for some sweet morning sugar.